Global News

[ad_1] Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co is proposing to buy back as much as 7.6% of shares in an effort to retain talent and offer an exit for investors ensnared by a years-long regulatory crackdown at the company. Ant’s planned repurchase of the equity would value the company at about 567.1 billion yuan ($78.5 billion), it said in a statement on Saturday. That is almost 70% lower than the $280 billion market capitalization it fetched in 2020 for the scrapped initial public offering. Chinese regulators are wrapping up a two-year crackdown on the country’s once freewheeling technology giants after slapping more than $1 billion of fines on Ant and Tencent Holdings Ltd. on Friday. Ant has completed its overhaul ordered by Beijing, pinching profitability and sapping growth at a sprawling platform that spanned lending and insurance to asset management. The buyback could enable Ant to shift its focus back to building business operations, easing pressure from pre-IPO investors seeking an ex...

[ad_1] Global stocks mostly fell Tuesday following a smaller-than-forecast Chinese interest rate cut, while a pullback in US markets suggested a rally was running out of steam. Asian stocks finished mostly lower, as did European equities. All three major US indices also pulled back, with the S&P 500 losing 0.5 percent. London stocks firmed on the eve of critical UK inflation data and ahead of Thursday’s expected interest rate increase from the Bank of England. “Developments in China, where the central bank cut its reference interest rate by ten basis points, continue to point to a slower-than-predicted post-pandemic recovery in the world’s second-largest economy," said ActivTrades analyst Ricardo Evangelista. “With China’s economy struggling to regain momentum, the headwinds for the global economy get stronger," he warned. The People’s Bank of China reduced its benchmark five-year rate by 10 basis points, less than the 15 points expected, though it did meet forecasts...

[ad_1] Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co is proposing to buy back as much as 7.6% of shares in an effort to retain talent and offer an exit for investors ensnared by a years-long regulatory crackdown at the company. Ant’s planned repurchase of the equity would value the company at about 567.1 billion yuan ($78.5 billion), it said in a statement on Saturday. That is almost 70% lower than the $280 billion market capitalization it fetched in 2020 for the scrapped initial public offering. Chinese regulators are wrapping up a two-year crackdown on the country’s once freewheeling technology giants after slapping more than $1 billion of fines on Ant and Tencent Holdings Ltd. on Friday. Ant has completed its overhaul ordered by Beijing, pinching profitability and sapping growth at a sprawling platform that spanned lending and insurance to asset management. The buyback could enable Ant to shift its focus back to building business operations, easing pressure from pre-IPO investors seeking an ex...